Rugby: Taniwha coach must wait for decision on job

COACH: Northland head coach Richie Harris is intent on seeing out his two-year contract with the Taniwha.PHOTO/JOHN STONE

Taniwha head coach Richie Harris is keen to sail on with another season at the helm of the embattled Northland side.

However, the future of his job, along with others, remains up in the air until this year's review process is complete.

With a collated report targeted to be completed next month, Harris said any final decisions and recommendations will lie in the hands of the Northland Rugby Union Board.

"[My] contract is for two years but results on the field have been poor and the reasons for that will come out in the review," Harris said.

"My job at the moment is to get the review process done and present a case where we think we can make changes going forward."

The review process, which began yesterday, will require players, coaches and management to voice their reflections of the Northland ITM Cup side's disappointing run through the 2015 ITM Cup Championship season.

"We have player reviews starting, so they go for two days and that's sort of players back to the coaches and coaches back to the players. Then there's a whole team review from the players to the management that happens, then everyone in management does their review on each other at the end of this week," Harris added.

Reflecting on the season that was, Harris said the ride had been invaluable despite the disappointing outcome.

"It made times stressful," Harris said.

"Results aside there's been really good learnings, probably learnings that I wouldn't have got in too many other environments, and it's been an enjoyable environment to work in," he said.

"There's always cracks in any organisation and winning tends to plaster over those cracks really well so you don't see them ... I guess we haven't been getting the results so it makes those cracks a bit more visible, but to be honest the team has kept in harmony really well and that's been the saving grace of the season.

"Had there been a whole heap of dysfunction it would have been an absolute mess."